Last Week in AI

Our 231st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 01/16/2026
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected]
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/
In this episode:
Anthropic's new cowork tool integrates Claude code, potentially simplifying multiple computing tasks from editing videos to compiling spreadsheets.
Significant funding rounds see Anthropic raising $10B at a valuation of $350B, while XAI raises $20B, underscoring the immense market interest in AI startups.
Nvidia faces supply challenges for H200 AI chips due to overwhelming demand from China, despite high costs per unit and its potential impact on U.S. company revenue.
Policy debates highlight tensions around U.S. export controls to China, with leaders like Justin Lin from Alibaba and Jake Sullivan, former national security advisor, weighing in on the ramifications for the AI industry's future.

Timestamps:
(00:00:10) Intro / Banter
(00:01:30) News Preview
Tools & Apps
(00:02:13) Anthropic’s new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code | TechCrunch
(00:09:45) Google’s Gemini AI will use what it knows about you from Gmail, Search, and YouTube | The Verge
(00:12:45) Google removes some AI health summaries after investigation finds “dangerous” flaws - Ars Technica
(00:16:29) Gmail is getting a Gemini AI overhaul
(00:18:12) Slackbot is an AI agent now | TechCrunch
Applications & Business
(00:20:11) Anthropic Raising $10 Billion at $350 Billion Value
(00:22:25) Elon Musk xAI raises $20 billion from Nvidia, Cisco, investors
(00:24:47) NVIDIA Needs a Supply Chain ‘Miracle’ From TSMC as China’s H200 AI Chip Orders Overwhelm Supply, Triggering a Bottleneck
(00:29:26) OpenAI signs deal, worth $10B, for compute from Cerebras | TechCrunch
(00:31:49) CoreWeave in focus as it amends credit agreement
(00:34:30) LMArena lands $1.7B valuation four months after launching its product | TechCrunch
Projects & Open Source
(00:35:54) Nemotron-Cascade: Scaling Cascaded Reinforcement Learning for General-Purpose Reasoning Models
(00:43:15) mHC: Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections
(00:49:53) IQuest_Coder_Technical_Report
(00:54:58) TII Abu-Dhabi Released Falcon H1R-7B: A New Reasoning Model Outperforming Others in Math and Coding with only 7B Params with 256k Context Window - MarkTechPost
Research & Advancements
(01:01:42) Deep Delta Learning
(01:07:47) Recursive Language Models
(01:13:39) Conditional memory via scalable lookup
(01:18:54) Extending the Context of Pretrained LLMs by Dropping their Positional Embeddings
Policy & Safety
(01:26:06) Constitutional Classifiers++: Efficient Production-Grade Defenses against Universal Jailbreaks
(01:31:00) Nvidia CEO says purchase orders, not formal declaration, will signal Chinese approval of H200
(01:32:24) China AI Leaders Warn of Widening Gap With US After $1B IPO Week
(01:37:25) Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump removed Biden’s AI chip export controls | The Verge
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our 230th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 01/02/2026
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected]
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/
In this episode:
Nvidia's acquisition of AI chip startup Groq for $20 billion highlights a strategic move for enhanced inference technology in GPUs.
New York's RAISE Act legislation aims to regulate AI safety, marking the second major AI safety bill in the US.
The launch of GLM 4.7 by Zhipu AI marks a significant advancement in open-source AI models for coding.
Evaluation of long-horizon AI agents raises concerns about the rising costs and efficiency of AI in performing extended tasks.

Timestamps:
(00:00:10) Intro / Banter
(00:01:58) 2025 Retrospective

Tools & Apps
(00:24:39) OpenAI bets big on audio as Silicon Valley declares war on screens | TechCrunch

Applications & Business
(00:26:39) Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion, biggest deal
(00:34:28) Exclusive | Meta Buys AI Startup Manus, Adding Millions of Paying Users - WSJ
(00:38:05) Cursor continues acquisition spree with Graphite deal | TechCrunch
(00:39:15) Micron Hikes CapEx to $20B with 2026 HBM Supply Fully Booked; HBM4 Ramps 2Q26
(00:42:06) Chinese fabs are reportedly upgrading older ASML DUV lithography chipmaking machines — secondary channels and independent engineers used to soup up Twinscan NXT series

Projects & Open Source
(00:47:52) Z.AI launches GLM-4.7, new SOTA open-source model for coding
(00:50:11) Evaluating AI’s ability to perform scientific research tasks

Research & Advancements
(00:54:32) Large Causal Models from Large Language Models
(00:57:33) Universally Converging Representations of Matter Across Scientific Foundation Models
(01:02:11) META-RL INDUCES EXPLORATION IN LANGUAGE AGENTS
(01:07:16) Are the Costs of AI Agents Also Rising Exponentially?
(01:11:17) METR eval for Opus 4.5
(01:16:19) How to game the METR plot

Policy & Safety
(01:17:24) New York governor Kathy Hochul signs RAISE Act to regulate AI safety | TechCrunch
(01:20:40) Activation Oracles: Training and Evaluating LLMs as General-Purpose Activation Explainers
(01:26:46) Monitoring Monitorability
(01:32:07) Sam Altman is hiring someone to worry about the dangers of AI | The Verge
(01:33:38) X users asking Grok to put this girl in bikini, Grok is happy obliging - India Today
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our 229th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 12/19/2025
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected]
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/
In this episode:
Notable releases include OpenAI's GPT-5.2 Codex for advanced coding and Google's Gemini Free Flash for competitive AI application performance. Nvidia's new open-source Trion-3 models also showcase impressive benchmarks.
Funding updates highlight Lovable's $330M Series B, valuing the AI coding startup at $6.6B, and Faya's $140M Series D for AI model hosting, valued at $4.5B.
China makes significant strides in semiconductor technology with advances in EUV lithography machines, led by Huawei and SMIC, potentially disrupting global chip manufacturing dominance.
Key safety and policy updates include OpenAI's GPT-5.2 system card focusing on biosecurity and cybersecurity risks, while Google partners with the US military to power a new AI platform with Gemini models.

Timestamps:
(00:00:10) Intro / Banter
(00:02:09) News Preview

Tools & Apps
(00:02:56) Google launches Gemini 3 Flash, makes it the default model in the Gemini app | TechCrunch
(00:10:13) ChatGPT launches an app store, lets developers know it's open for business | TechCrunch
(00:13:35) Introducing GPT-5.2-Codex | OpenAI
(00:19:23) Story about OpenAI release - GPT image 1.5
(00:22:27) Meta partners with ElevenLabs to power AI audio across Instagram, Horizon - The Economic Times

Applications & Business
(00:23:16) OpenAI to End Equity Vesting Period for Employees, WSJ Says
(00:28:20) How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips
(00:36:47) China’s Huawei, SMIC Make Progress With Chips, Report Finds
(00:41:03) OpenAI in Talks to Raise At Least $10 Billion From Amazon and Use Its AI Chips
(00:43:32) Amazon has a new leader for its ‘AGI’ group as it plays catch-up on AI | The Verge
(00:47:27) Broadcom reveals its mystery $10 billion customer is Anthropic
(00:49:12) Vibe-coding startup Lovable raises $330M at a $6.6B valuation | TechCrunch
(00:50:38) Fal nabs $140M in fresh funding led by Sequoia, tripling valuation to $4.5B | TechCrunch

Projects & Open Source
(00:51:10) Nvidia Becomes a Major Model Maker With Nemotron 3 | WIRED
(00:59:24) Meta introduces new SAM AI able to isolate and edit audio • The Register
(00:59:54) [2512.14856] T5Gemma 2: Seeing, Reading, and Understanding Longer
(01:03:10) Anthropic makes agent Skills an open standard - SiliconANGLE

Research & Advancements
(01:03:47) Budget-Aware Tool-Use Enables Effective Agent Scaling
(01:08:21) Rethinking Thinking Tokens: LLMs as Improvement Operators
(01:10:50) What if AI capabilities suddenly accelerated in 2027? How would the world know?

Policy & Safety
(01:12:58) Update to GPdfT-5 System Card: GPT-5.2
(01:18:04) Neural Chameleons: Language Models Can Learn to Hide Their Thoughts from Unseen Activation Monitors
(01:20:47) Async Control: Stress-testing Asynchronous Control Measures for LLM Agents
(01:24:37) Google is powering a new US military AI platform | The Verge
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our 228th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 12/12/2025
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected]
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/
In this episode:
OpenAI's latest model GPT-5.2 demonstrates improved performance and enhanced multi-modal capabilities but comes with increased costs and a different knowledge cutoff date.
Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI to generate Disney character content, creating unique licensing agreements across characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars franchises.
The U.S. government imposes new AI chip export rules involving security reviews, while simultaneously moving to prevent states from independently regulating AI.
DeepMind releases a paper outlining the challenges and findings in scaling multi-agent systems, highlighting the complexities of tool coordination and task performance.

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro / Banter
(00:01:19) News Preview
Tools & Apps
(00:01:58) GPT-5.2 is OpenAI’s latest move in the agentic AI battle | The Verge
(00:08:48) Runway releases its first world model, adds native audio to latest video model | TechCrunch
(00:11:51) Google says it will link to more sources in AI Mode | The Verge
(00:12:24) ChatGPT can now use Adobe apps to edit your photos and PDFs for free | The Verge
(00:13:05) Tencent releases Hunyuan 2.0 with 406B parameters
Applications & Business
(00:16:15) China set to limit access to Nvidia’s H200 chips despite Trump export approval
(00:21:02) Disney investing $1 billion in OpenAI, will allow characters on Sora
(00:24:48) Unconventional AI confirms its massive $475M seed round
(00:29:06) Slack CEO Denise Dresser to join OpenAI as chief revenue officer | TechCrunch
(00:31:18) The state of enterprise AI
Projects & Open Source
(00:33:49) [2512.10791] The FACTS Leaderboard: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Large Language Model Factuality
(00:36:27) Claude 4.5 Opus' Soul Document
Research & Advancements
(00:43:49) [2512.08296] Towards a Science of Scaling Agent Systems
(00:48:43) Evaluating Gemini Robotics Policies in a Veo World Simulator
(00:52:10) Guided Self-Evolving LLMs with Minimal Human Supervision
(00:56:08) Martingale Score: An Unsupervised Metric for Bayesian Rationality in LLM Reasoning
(01:00:39) [2512.07783] On the Interplay of Pre-Training, Mid-Training, and RL on Reasoning Language Models
(01:04:42) Stabilizing Reinforcement Learning with LLMs: Formulation and Practices
(01:09:42) Google’s AI unit DeepMind announces UK 'automated research lab'
Policy & Safety
(01:10:28) Trump Moves to Stop States From Regulating AI With a New Executive Order - The New York Times
(01:13:54) [2512.09742] Weird Generalization and Inductive Backdoors: New Ways to Corrupt LLMs
(01:17:57) Forecasting AI Time Horizon Under Compute Slowdowns
(01:20:46) AI Security Institute focuses on AI measurements and evaluations
(01:21:16) Nvidia AI Chips to Undergo Unusual U.S. Security Review Before Export to China
(01:22:01) U.S. Authorities Shut Down Major China-Linked AI Tech Smuggling Network
Synthetic Media & Art
(01:24:01) RSL 1.0 has arrived, allowing publishers to ask AI companies pay to scrape content | The Verge

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our 227th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 12/05/2025
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at [email protected] and/or [email protected]
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/
In this episode:
Deep Seek 3.2 and Flux 2 release, showcasing advancements in open-source AI models for natural language processing and image generation respectively.
Amazon's new AI chips and Google's TPUs signal potential shifts in AI hardware dominance, with growing competition against Nvidia.
Anthropic's potential IPO and OpenAI's declared ‘Code Red’ indicate significant moves in the AI business landscape, including high venture funding rounds for startups.
Key research papers from DeepMind and Google explore advanced memory architectures and multi-agent systems, indicating ongoing efforts to enhance AI reasoning and efficiency.

Timestamps:
(00:00:10) Intro / Banter
(00:02:42) News Preview
Tools & Apps
(00:03:30) Deepseek 3.2 : New AI Model is Faster, Cheaper and Smarter
(00:23:22) Black Forest Labs launches Flux.2 AI image models to challenge Nano Banana Pro and Midjourney
(00:28:00) Sora and Nano Banana Pro throttled amid soaring demand | The Verge
(00:29:34) Mistral closes in on Big AI rivals with new open-weight frontier and small models | TechCrunch
(00:31:41) Kling's Video O1 launches as the first all-in-one video model for generation and editing
(00:34:07) Runway rolls out Gen 4.5 AI video model that beats Google, OpenAI
Applications & Business
(00:35:18) NVIDIA’s Partners Are Beginning to Tilt Toward Google’s TPU Ecosystem, with Foxconn Reportedly Securing TPU Rack Orders
(00:40:37) Amazon releases an impressive new AI chip and teases an Nvidia-friendly roadmap | TechCrunch
(00:43:03) OpenAI declares ‘code red’ as Google catches up in AI race | The Verge
(00:46:20) Anthropic reportedly preparing for massive IPO in race with OpenAI: FT
(00:48:41) Black Forest Labs raises $300M at $3.25B valuation | TechCrunch
(00:49:20) Paris-based AI voice startup Gradium nabs $70M seed | TechCrunch
(00:50:10) OpenAI announced a 1 GW Stargate cluster in Abu Dhabi
(00:53:22) OpenAI’s investment into Thrive Holdings is its latest circular deal
(00:55:11) OpenAI to acquire Neptune, an AI model training assistance startup
(00:56:11) Anthropic acquires developer tool startup Bun to scale AI coding
(00:56:55) Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas - Ars Technica
Projects & Open Source
(00:57:51) [2511.22570] DeepSeekMath-V2: Towards Self-Verifiable Mathematical Reasoning
(01:01:52) Evo-Memory: Benchmarking LLM Agent Test-time Learning with Self-Evolving Memory
Research & Advancements
(01:05:44) Nested Learning: The Illusion of Deep Learning Architecture
(01:13:30) Multi-Agent Deep Research: Training Multi-Agent Systems with M-GRPO
(01:15:50) State of AI: An Empirical 100 Trillion Token Study with OpenRouter
Policy & Safety
(01:21:52) Trump signs executive order launching Genesis Mission AI project
(01:24:42) OpenAI has trained its LLM to confess to bad behavior | MIT Technology Review
(01:29:34) US senators seek to block Nvidia sales of advanced chips to China
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.